Prepared for AMB379 Public Relations Campaigns (May 2016) Brisbane Open House Public Relations Plan Brisbane Open House Public Relations Plan EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Brisbane Open House has approached Glasshouse Public Relations to ensure the organisation maintains a positive growth trajectory and is well-positioned to obtain sponsorship and funding in a highly competitive operating environment The opportunity to increase, awareness of and engagement with Brisbane Open House among Brisbane young professionals and university has been identified as a way to meet this goal. Glasshouse Public Relations is proud to introduce the Unlock Your City Campaign. The campaign is innovative, creative and cost-effective and has been designed to truly unlock the potential of Brisbane Open House whilst maximizing their reputation and building relationships with a new target audience and the local community. Glasshouse Public Relations have utilised a strategic approach that incorporates media and community relations to capture the interest and involvement of a new target public that they had not specifically targeted in previous campaigns. Furthermore the strategy is cost-effective and has incorporated competition-based incentives, social media, traditional media and community engagement. Tactics have been designed to achieve the specific goals and objectives relating to awareness and engagement among the target public towards Brisbane Open House events and as brand overall. This proposal discusses how this campaign can achieve the public relations goal and ultimately, achieve Brisbane Open House’s goal while using the slogan “unlock your city” as an underlying key message that shines through each tactic.. The three key tactics and mutliple sub-tactics will be implemented throughout that campaign period of mid June – October 2016 and are detailed in the campaign’s tactical timeline. 1 Brisbane Open House Public Relations Plan TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary ......................................................................................................... 1 1 Consultancy Team ..................................................................................................... 3 2 Situation Analysis ...................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Client Summary ................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Research Insights ............................................................................................... 5 2.3 Public Relations Problem/Opportunity ................................................................ 6 3 Stakeholders and Publics .......................................................................................... 7 4 Strategic Approach .................................................................................................... 9 4.1 Goals and Objectives .......................................................................................... 9 4.2 Communication Strategy ................................................................................... 11 5 Tactical Program ...................................................................................................... 12 5.1 Tactic 1: Unlock Your City BNE Social and Media Campaign .......................... 12 5.2 Tactic 2: Guest Speakers .................................................................................. 13 5.3 Tactic 3: Light up the City .................................................................................. 14 6 Timeline ................................................................................................................... 16 7 Social, Ethical and Legal Considerations ................................................................ 19 8 Budget ..................................................................................................................... 21 9 Evaluation Plan ........................................................................................................ 23 References ..................................................................................................................... 24 Appendix A – Consultancy Credentials .......................................................................... 26 Appendix B – Unlock Your City BNE – Key Prototype ................................................... 27 Appendix C – Targeted Media List ................................................................................. 28 Appendix D – Potential Effectiveness of FaceBook Advertisements ............................. 32 Appendix E – Guest Speakers ....................................................................................... 33 Appendix F – Budget ...................................................................................................... 34 2 Brisbane Open House Public Relations Plan 1 CONSULTANCY TEAM Renee Abbott - Community Relations and Strategy Specialist Renee has widespread knowledge in both community relations and strategic planning. Her focus at Glasshouse Public Relations is to deliver her clients with the best solutions in the most appropriate channels whilst playing a pivotal role in building relationships for her clients and their stakeholders. [email protected] Ph: (07) 3338 8080 Michael Bailey - Budget and Accounting Specialist Michael has extensive experience in budgeting marketing campaigns for some of Queenslands most respected communications companies. His Bachelors Degree in Finance and his background in accounting has proven invaluable for Glasshouse Public Relations. [email protected] Ph: (07) 3338 8081 Laura Cappiello - Event and Media Relations Specialist Laura began her communications career at Queensland Univeristy of Technology, studying business, public relations, and marketing. She then went on to work for IMG Sydney’s events division before returning to Brisbane. Laura has worked on some of Australia’s biggest events in sport, fashion, and entertainment and the arts. [email protected] Ph: (07) 3338 8082 Kassi Fleming - Business Development Specialist Kassi is responsible for managing Glasshouse Public Relations client relationships and identifying opportunities and challenges within client briefs. Kassi is often the first point of contact in situations of crisis and issues management and her role includes scanning for, and monitoring issues. [email protected] Ph: (07) 3338 8083 Haley Nguyen - Marketing & Audience Research Specialist Haley is responsible for defining target publics for campaigns by conducting primary research, collecting external data and analysing valuable insights. This involves designing surveys, interpreting and evaluating data analysis, executing segmentations for the campaign. [email protected] Ph: (07) 3338 8084 For more information regarding Glasshouse Public Relations please refer to Appendix A – “Consultancy Credentials”. 3 Brisbane Open House Public Relations Plan 2 SITUATION ANALYSIS 2.1 CLIENT SUMMARY As Brisbane Open House (BOH) enters its seventh year, Glasshouse Public Relations (Glasshouse PR) have been commissioned to ensure the organisation maintains a positive growth trajectory and is well-positioned to obtain sponsorship and funding in a highly competitive operating environment (Brisbane Open House, 2016b, p. 4). Traditionally, the BOH weekend follows the Brisbane Festival, a month-long celebration of the city. The timing of these events may be considered an opportunity for BOH to “piggy-back” on Brisbane Festival and the sense of community it creates. Conversely, the timing also presents a challenge for BOH to compete with, and overcome, oversaturation and consumer fatigue. Both events share major partners; Treasury Casino & Hotel, Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council which places Brisbane Festival and BOH in direct competition for funding (Brisbane Festival, 2016; Brisbane Open House, 2016c). In this regard, BOH is at a disadvantage due to Brisbane Festival’s ability to attract intrastate, interstate and overseas visitors and engagement with a more diverse age range (Brisbane Festival, 2015, p. 11). Historical data indicates the BOH weekend has attracted more visits and shown growth each year it has been in operation. However, the event is predominantly, attended by participants over 46 years of age (Brisbane Open House, 2016b, p. 3). This can be attributed to a low level of awareness among younger demographics despite their expressly stated interest in attending once informed of the event during the process of being surveyed by Glasshouse PR. Through careful consideration of the client brief and additional research, the opportunity and necessity for growth in areas of community and media relations have been identified in order to raise awareness of BOH among younger demographics and subsequently to attract more visits and visitors to the BOH event. 4 Brisbane Open House Public Relations Plan The key consideration for developing a strategy to address this opportunity was how to engage the media and community with the most cost-effective approach while providing maximum benefit to the client and engaging existing sponsors, partners and participants from a new an interesting angle. 2.2 RESEARCH INSIGHTS In the past BOH has tended to attract visitors aged 46 to 65, the generation known as Baby Boomers. Members of this demographic who have previously visited BOH events indicated they would return